Misuse Tissues

The title is just fun to say, isn't it?

I'm going to tell you a sad story, kids. I've got a cold. In August. It sucks for a number of reasons. Let me enumerate: you want hot soup, but it's 85 degrees out. You want snuggly covers on you, but it's 85 degrees out. You want to sleep, but you can't because it's EIGHTY FIVE DEGREES OUT!

Also, when you are a human bag of snot you miss fun activities like family parties and yard sale-ing. This makes you more depressed. So, in an effort to keep our spirits up let's review finds from a week ago and pretend that we aren't blowing our nose every five minutes and wearing the tender skin raw, shall we? These things came from a church sale (St. Pius X) and a neighborhood sale in Gates.

Sidebar: You well know how much I love Catholic Church names that seem to be the type that should dissuade people from attending their churches. For instance, Our Lady of Sorrows. Add to that list, St. Pius. St. Goody-two-shoes? St. I'll-Tattle-On-You-If-You-Do-Something-Even-Smacking-Of-Wrongness? What happened to St. Nobody's Perfect? St. We're All Human? I guess there is just something I'm missing about these names. One day, mark my words, one day I will understand!

Sarah Mae's finds first:

Sarah Mae has started an awesome collection of anthropomorphic goodies. We found this bag of plush Christmas ornaments in an unlikely box of old toys. It's never been opened and each little fruit man is wearing or holding a symbol of Christmas. The maroon dress was handmade in Greece.

Vintage soccer camp shirt, deer plaque, tiny I Heart NY plastic purse what hinges open to reveal a mirror, bag of plastic Halloween creepers and an awesome bright red vintage cardigan with yarn wrapped buttons.


A gorgeous hand carved and painted wooden frame with poppies on it. Vintage nut cups. I'll just let that one go on by. A small leather purse. A large partridge in a pear tree pendant and a small metal pin.


Sarah Mae loves midcentury modern. She got two great (and colorful) planters. OK, so maybe the lilac hippo isn't a planter. But, it could be!


This light was $3. Real wood. The lady practically gave us the whole history of the thing and we were thinking the whole time that she was going to tell us it was $50 or some such. But no. At the end of the spiel it was $3. Oh yes, this is a good one.


These are the terrors that flap in the night! (No wait, that's Darkwing Duck.) But these are terrifying nonetheless. Sarah Mae likes a frightening little baby every now and again. The star burst is a Christmas craft and the leather wallet is a map of Greece. (We were in a neighborhood with a lot of Greek people.)

This light was $1. I'll just let that sink in.

Now my finds:

I had this book when I was a kid. I have a real thing for kids books. I have a growing collection. The tray was FREE and I don't really have a place for it. Oh well!


Christmas delights! This was one of those every so slightly illegal make your own bags. You know, when all the bags are laid out and priced individually but you don't want all the other crap in the bags. What you want is five things from five different bags. So what you do is open all the bags, rearrange the contents and come away with a bag of stuff full of things you do want. Looking over your shoulder the whole time just hoping against hope you don't get caught. Oh, you don't do that? Hm. Maybe it's just me.

The frame is real wood. I have another like it that is smaller and pink. I'm sure I'll paint this one at some point, too.

Want a closer look at these goodies?

The earrings are vintage 80's. I don't know what's wrong with me.


The white tree is a tin.


$3 and brand spanking new! I can't wait to mix up something wonderful for a party.

Check out the colors in this French street scene. These shot glasses match exactly some juice glasses that we already have. They say Florida.


This is my favorite find. $1. It's missing the front door and the base has seen better days but whoever designed these things was a genius. I love them all. This one has taken up residence in my living room and looks amazing.

Now, to get rid of this cold and get ready for next weekend!

Too Many To Do

This weekend there were lots of sales in our area. Lots of streets, lots of neighborhoods, lots of churches. We started at Dunkin Donuts to fuel up. We almost always start there. A little sugar, a little caffeine and we are ready to hit the open road.

In attendance: The husband, HB, Alicia, Sarah Mae and Me.

This is a picture from one of the church sales. I think it might be the exit, what do you think?

Just so you know where we're heading with this I'll give you a sneak peek at our haul:


And we had five humans in that car! For hours. In case you weren't aware, this is what is known as hard core. We are the few, the elite, the yard salers.

Alicia got a new backpack for scooting (when she rides her pretty red scooter) that is from the 80's and has the colors of the rainbow printed on it. It also has the original tag and a set of original mini colored pencils. So you can practice the colors on your own. Educational. $2. She also got an Amerks tote to bring to work with her. She loves those Rochester Americans. Can we just talk about what a rotten team name that is? "The Americans". Although on second thought I'm sure it would inspire tons of fear and loathing the world around, so maybe they are on to something there. Imagine if there was a team called "The Mexicans" or "The Spaniards". Not real nice. That was about a quarter as was the little hand towel with the reindeer on it. It's for Christmas time at her new house what she's going to get. I love that one of the first things she's planning for is Christmas. That's my girl.

The bulldog door stopper was $2 and the colossal and gorgeous vintage jewelry box was only $5.

HB got a ton of stuff. But, she didn't win the most or the biggest. She did get another ceramic tree (it does have plastic lights, not pictured) and this one is blue and was $5. A vintage Christmas light cover for a quarter, vintage scarfs for herself and for her Etsy shop (a quarter each), a mug for her mother who is an avid sewer, that says "Stitch-n-Bitch", some pounded pewter cups to use as vases (10 cents each) and a pair of earrings. They are hands with the middle finger sticking up. So sweet. So cute. What a perfectly appropriate subject for dangle earrings! We have a friend who will think so! (at least they were only a quarter)

The wire stand is what I thought (hoped?) would win "the biggest". I think it cost her $2 and was winning for quite a while. It has two baskets in it and she will probably use it outside to put flowers in. After a good coat of crazy bright spray paint. She has a collection of dramatic ship images: paintings, books and now, tins! The parrot clip on was a quarter or something. She loves birds, too. Especially ones that clip on. The large green glass ornament is Alicia's and cost a quarter at one of the church sales.

Here we have the winner of "The Most". You might think by these pictures that she must have won "The Biggest" as well. But, no so! All of the crazy hats are for her Etsy shop. They were about $1 each. I'm sorry to tell you that we planned a picture where we were each wearing a hat, and it was good. I was wearing the Q-Tip hat, second from the right. The yellow one seems to be made from genuine Muppet skin, and you know how I feel about that. The husband was even wearing one...the leopard skin hat. So, you can imagine the delight we had prepared for you. We even went so far as to ask a random lady in a church parking lot to take the picture. Then we even believed her when she said she wanted to "take two, just in case". She shut the camera off, instead. No picture. Sorry kids. You'll just have to use your ample imaginations, I guess.


The Bert and Ernie picture frame is vintage, adorable and was $1. The two leather purses were $1 each and the vinyl on with the ship was like 50 cents or something ridiculous. I told her that some hipster chick is going to love the shit (ship?) out of that one. There is a white metal tin with a rainbow graphic on it hiding back there. It's from the 80's. I used to have one just like it and I kept my crayons in it. Can you imagine the delight? The vintage Ray Ban mirror was $3 and she likes it so much she just might keep it. As for the nightmare rabbit...we'll get to that in a minute.

The cabinet was meant to house a record player...we think. There are holes in the back to that effect. We saw it at a church sale and sort of looked at it for a minute and then decided it was too much for the shape it was in. At checkout the guy from the furniture shed found us and asked if we'd take it away for like $2, Sarah Mae said she'd give him $1 and that was that. It's made of real wood and has nice brass feet. It's right up Sarah Mae's mid century modern alley. She loves tapered legs and clean lines. If you've ever seen the movie The Incredibles then you've seen Sarah Mae's dream house. She'd love to live in an atomic ranch built in the 50's.


So then, back to this...thing. I have a theory about toys from the 20's-50's. There is a very large time period where toys seem to be built for the express function of terrifying children to their little souls. Case in point. This fuzzy pink nightmare has a human face. It also plays music. Demon music rabbit. I think drinking was the national pastime during those years and it shows. What child is going to like this? What child is going to want to see this sticking out of his/her easter basket? No child, that's who. It's worse than Ralphie's pink rabbit pajamas.

Finally. The winner of "The Biggest". (Get your minds out of the gutter! You guys are seriously filthy.) The husband bought the biggest and what will surly end up being the most profitable. A Bridgestone bicycle from the early 90's. Originally marked $30. He waited until the end of the sale and went back to see if they would take less. Turns out they would. The grand total was $5. FIVE DOLLARS. That's no joke! Look at him all suave trying to control his bursting pride. Hopefully he really ends up selling it and doesn't add it to the menagerie of bikes that seem to be multiplying of their own volition on our porch. Hopefully he'll list it on Ebay and sell it really soon. Unlike the Doc Martins.

A few more shots for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing.

And here are my treasures. A free Encyclopedia from the 40's full of glorious pictures and illustrations. Another beer glass, this one from Dave & Busters which I thought was a made-up place from one of our favorite shows It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (50 cents) and what has got to be the world's ugliest Gonzo doll. I picked it up specifically to laugh at it. I thought there was no way it could be a licensed product. But, it was. Shame on you Disney! Shame on you Henson. You shouldn't sully your good names with sub-par character pieces like this! And what exactly is he wearing? A disco outfit? For the love of god man! But I bought it for a quarter because I'm a good collector. Or a sucker. One of the two. Geez. The thing is even wall-eyed. *shudder*


Then there's this little girl for a quarter. Vintage coy polka dot Christmas fiddle player. Flocked. Yes, please.


A few things for my Etsy page. Do you remember Nosey Bears? I didn't ever have one, but the popcorn one was my favorite! Better keep Lilah away from this little dude.


These things are both gifts. If you know much about me, you know I love Newsies. My friends love Newsies. We sing it, watch it and pretty much bond over it every chance we get. The gloves are for a friend that collects...gloves. I'm not sure that she has a pair of magenta in her stash of over 100 pairs.


This is my favorite find of the day. The fox lamp. I got it for a friend of mine but had she not wanted it, I wouldn't have walked away from this guy. I mean, just look at his little face! It reminds me of Fantastic Mr. Fox. A book I fell in love with many years before the movie came out. I love the movie, too.

The shade is a bit messed up, but...

I refer you back to this mug. Are you gonna say no to it? And at $5, it was a steal!

Aaaand....They're Off!

Last weekend was the official start of yard sale-ing season. I have the biggest car with back seats that fold down flat and a hatch back trunk so, I am the driver. I picked up HB and Alicia and then a new friend named Karla and we hit the open trail.

Our first stop was "Our Mother of Sorrows" Church sale. Which leads me into a whole mind-circle regarding Catholic names and getting people to like your religion. Our Mother of Sorrows isn't quite making the grade there. Along with Our Father of Depression and Our Children of Cutting Themselves, Our Mother of Sorrows ranks right up there with worst church names ever.

Now, this sale has been good to us before and we catch it almost every year. We always check out the tent first. Large pieces of furniture huddle under the tent. This year HB bought a $2 bentwood chair right away (painted aqua, score!) and then fretted about an armless loveseat in aqua velvet with some cat damage at the corners, but nice clawfeet on casters, too. It was marked $10 and we debated over ways to fix it and if it was worth $10, which it almost certainly was. Karla said that HB could take a reupholstering class and learn to fix it herself. Finally I suggested that we go inside and shop and if it was still there when we came out it was clearly a sign that we should purchase it.

We shopped. Some of us more than others. Karla got a sweet picnic basket with all the table settings for 50 cents, I got two tiny things, which were my only finds the entire day and HB did in fact end up getting the love seat. Alicia found a little doggie and a garbage can. These girls have bought more garbage cans than I care to tell you about. I guess that is what happens when you "like things clean".

On the way to pay for it, the old man tending The Tent asked her what the price was. She told him $10. He countered, "How about five?" She responded by hugging him, obviously. He then giggled and commented suggestively, "How about THREE?" He posed for pictures with her and then we rammed it into the car. Along with the chair, our finds and four women. The set up was just ever so slightly illegal. But, we really hazed Karla pretty good. "Hi there. This is your seat, here in this cramped position with no seat belt between a chair and a love seat and about forty bags of stuff until we get to where we are going."

This is the second time she has taken one for the team this year. The first being the table.

The love seat bit HB and drew blood. She stopped it with super glue. People who work at hospitals know weird things. Don't even ASK what spewtum is, you don't want to know.

HB's second bentwood chair of the day. TV trays that Karla and HB fought over for a minute, frightening the old lady who was having the sale. HB conceded and Karla came home victorious.

Round One
HB: Aqua chair-$2, Pyrex dish-50 cents, vintage linen with embroidered barware in orange & green-?, Sapphire puff pillow-50 cents, Santa head mug- 50 cents, pink plastic tray-?, ship picture-10 cents.
Alicia:Doggie figurine-?, Orange stripe garbage can-?
Karla:Wicker picnic basket with full table service-50 cents

Round Two
HB: White bentwood chair, orange glass pitcher with glass stir stick & another boat picture-$5 total

Karla: Bag-50cents, white ceramic and wood light-$1

All in all a very good start to the season. This next weekend is going to be wild! Stay tuned!